Jake Paul’s uninspiring victory over 58-year-old Mike Tyson certainly had the desired effect on viewers, according to viewing figures shared by Most Valuable Promotions after Friday’s fight card on Netflix.
While more details are expected to be released later this week, the event is believed to be a record night for Netflix. According to MVP, an average of 60 million households are watching the main event live, with as many as 65 million watching simultaneously.
Additionally, Katie Taylor’s controversial win over Amanda Serrano had nearly 50 million households in the audience, MVP revealed.
The ratings are even more impressive considering the technical issues that plagued Friday’s livestream.
The outage tracking website Downdetector.com revealed outages lasting about six hours for some viewers in the US during Friday’s fight. According to Downdetector, the problem peaked with more than 90,000 reports of problems to Netflix.
Jake Paul announced as winner against Mike Tyson during LIVE on Netflix
Fans on both sides of the Atlantic suffered poor picture quality, prolonged buffering and spotty audio during Friday’s undercard and main event. Meanwhile, hundreds online complained about error messages, while ‘#unwatchable’ started trending on X.
“Netflix is tricking everyone into watching a fight that they have no idea how to technically support,” one critic wrote on X.
“Well, look on the bright side,” someone joked. “There’s nothing like Netflix to bring the country back together after a divisive election. Looks like we’re all on the same side tonight.”
The frustrations extended beyond the livestream.
There were also problems for those present at the broadcast. Kate Scott, who was handling hosting duties, was overheard asking the producers ‘where are we’ as people on the desk struggled to hear each other.
And it wasn’t just Scott who had problems. Tyson’s former rivals Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield also struggled to hear each other.
Fans were unimpressed with Netflix’s performance during Friday’s fight in Texas
Many viewers were confronted with an error message during Friday’s fight on Netflix
A reported 70,000 seats have been sold for the fight at the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium.
These issues obviously had no impact at all on the gate, which was another record for MVP.
Earlier in the evening, promoters revealed that Tyson-Paul grossed more than $17.8 million at the gate, becoming the biggest box office hit in the United States outside of Las Vegas.
Additionally, Tyson-Paul nearly doubled the previous record in Texas when Mexican Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez defeated Brit Billy Joe Saunders at the same venue, AT&T Stadium, in 2021.
And aside from a 2016 UFC fight between Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez in New York, Friday’s fight card has recorded the highest gate of any American combat sports event outside Las Vegas.
MVP, co-owned by Paul, revealed Friday that there were 70,000 attendees at the home of the Dallas Cowboys. The location has a total capacity of 80,000 people.